Final Exams

It's finals week and you could smell the stress around the English Department buildings. The students were nervous, the course coordinators were running about getting organized. I don't really know what goes into planning a week of exams, but over 6,000 students had to take the Freshman English exam Monday morning at 8am. I don't know how or where they fit everyone on campus. I walked upstairs to proctor my students and all 50 of my freshman students were huddled outside the door of the classroom, chatting and studying their textbooks up until the last minute. The same thing happened that afternoon with my older students, only there were 100 of them. I had way too much fun walking around and wishing them luck. It made me really sad that I wouldn't be seeing them every other day. I was overwhelmed when I saw the sheer number of students I had all in one place. They were like my little families. My 8am Monday/Thursday family, my 1:00 Tuesday/Friday family, they were all there with big nervous smiles. All wanting my attention. I was the mother hen of all my chickadees. Too bad I had a dummy moment right before the afternoon exam. I had a lovely relaxing lunch, and wandered up to the exam to greet my students. I told all my afternoon students that their exam is in room 607. All 100 of them were in the hallway outside of 607. I moseyed around with my cup of coffee and stepped into the exam room to only find 30 chairs and exams for one section. Where were my other two sections supposed to go? The Thai Ajarn who was helping me proctor my exam didn't speak English, and he didn't have a clue what I was so worried about. I ran down 6 flights of stairs to find a coordinator in a panic. They told me that my students were in rooms 607/1 (what kind of room number is that, anyway?) and 608. I ran up 6 flights of stairs to quick tell my students where they should go so they didn't lose any time on their exam but by the time I made it to the top, no one was there. My 100 students disappeared and it was silent. I was sweaty and alone in the hallway. Turns out everyone knew exactly where they were supposed to be but me. Ironic. Story of my life.

This whole week I am locking myself in coffee shops in my neighborhood and getting 150 3 hour exams graded in the next 3 days. I will only take breaks for food, water, going to the gym, naps, massages, and maybe some ice cream. I'm not too worried about it.